As the biggest women's stage races of the year are fast approaching with the Giro d'Italia Donne (June 30-July 9) and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (July 23-30), Cyclingnews sits down with one of the sport's major contenders, Mavi Garcia.
The Liv Racing Teqfind all-rounder has steadily grown to become one of the riders to watch in the women’s peloton over the last five years.
There are certain riders whose names seem to be on everyone’s lips – the “box office” players who need no introduction – Marianne Vos, Annemiek van Vleuten, and Lizzie Deignan, to name a few.
Then there are other heroines of cycling who regularly feature in the mix, but they execute their jobs quietly and surely. With podium places in Strade Bianche, the Giro d'Italia Donne, and five-time national road race champion, Señora Garcia resides in this group.
In an exclusive interview, Garcia speaks with Cyclingnews about road racing glory, age and experience plus her prospects for the upcoming Giro d’Italia Donne and the Tour de France Femmes.
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El Camino to road racing glory
The Spaniard is happiest when she is back home in Mallorca, where she was born and bred, relaxing with friends and family, plus her partner, who now doubles as her coach.
“We have a spectacular landscape with mountains, and you can see the sea nearby,” says Garcia. “It’s lovely countryside to enjoy when on the bike. From my home in Establiments near Palma, I can very quickly be in the mountains. I like going up from Andratx to Puigpunyent and Puig Mayor, which are great climbs. Then there’s Sa Calobra, which is a very special climb for me.”
In fact, Garcia holds the Strava QOM for many of the local climbs – though also adds that some of the crowns she lost were to folks who scaled the roads on a motorbike.
Biking (on a push-bike) is now Garcia’s first love, though it hasn’t always been the case. Born Margarita Victoria Garcia Cañellas in 1984 at Marratxi, the Mallorcan started out her sporting life on the ice as a figure skater, which she did into her teens. There then followed a few years where she didn’t do much sport at all and focused on her job in hospitality.
After re-starting sport as a competitive runner, aged 25, she developed a taste for combining that with cycling – which her older brother was into – and she had a successful career as a duathlete, taking medals in the European and World Championships. Garcia was also juggling her duathlon career with cycling and had a contract with Bizkaia-Durango but since getting a contract with Movistar in 2018 and focusing 100% on cycling, she hasn’t looked back.
However, those early days of being a professional cyclist in 2015 were neither straightforward nor fun for the then-31-year-old.
“It was tough for me at first. When I started cycle racing, there were a lot of things that I couldn’t control. It seemed quite a complicated sport with a peloton, unlike in duathlon where you race on your own or with five or six women around you,” Garcia recalls.
“I didn’t understand how or why things were done in a certain way, I couldn’t understand the tactics or anything. As well as this, I was inexperienced, I had a lot of crashes – one year, I broke my collar bone and another time, I broke it on the other side. I was always crashing, and I was often fearful because of the crashes. I remember one year when doing the Giro Donne, out of 10 stages, I crashed in five of them! So yes, I must say things went badly.”
So what kept her in the sport? Garcia admits that she really enjoyed training on the bike, and that kept her in the game but, despite finding it extremely tough to go out and race, she believed that eventually she would do a race where things would go well.
“People around me advised me to continue too, saying you would never know what would be. And in the end, things turned out well. Lots of people helped me and continue to help me along the way, including my partner, who coaches me. There have also been people on my teams," she says.
"I learned a lot when I joined Bizkaia-Durango, the team with which I did my first few races, and I had a really good relationship with the sports director and others on the team. I have good memories of those times with them. To be honest, if it wasn’t for the various people who helped me, things would have been much more difficult when getting into racing. Nowadays, I’ve got the hang of things in cycling, and I really enjoy it.”
After her contract with Movistar Team, Alé BTC Ljubljana (which became UAE Team ADQ), Garcia now finds herself in Liv Racing Teqfind as one of the lead riders. She has come a long way since those days of panicking when riding in a peloton.
Maglia rosa
The Giro d'Italia Donne and the Tour de France Femmes are target events for Garcia. However, given her strong track record on the roads of Italy and with stages having profiles more suited to her, she fancies her chances at the Corsa Rosa.
“I think that the route of the Giro suits me better, as there is just one prologue and then hilly stages. They will be tough, though more like constantly undulating terrain, which is better for me than a stage with a really long climb, such as the Tourmalet in the Tour de France," Garcia says.
"Also, there’s a 22km-time trial on the last day of the Tour. That will be hard for me because there are significant differences in speed between me and some of the other girls. So I think I will do better in the Giro. Both races will be tough, but I hope to do well in the Giro.”
After a 5th place in 2021 and a 3rd in 2023 in the general classification, could this be her year to go two better and stand on the podium as the overall winner of the Giro d'Italia Donne?
So far this year, Garcia has had some encouraging results, which bode well for the rest of the season. The reigning Spanish national champion reflects on her successes.
“Flèche-Wallone has been my best result this year so far, though I just fell short of getting onto the podium," she says. "Things were going well, but it was in those last 50 metres going over the Mur de Huy where it got really tough, and I lost contact. But I am really glad that I got that far."
Notwithstanding falling short on the Mur de Huy, the gutsy Spaniard is keen to show her strengths over the forthcoming racing calendar. She has already got one Grand Tour under her belt this year, where she placed in the top 10 at La Vuelta Feminina by Carrefour.es, which this year was a seven-day stage race – a big departure from the usual couple of days at the end of the men’s Vuelta a España.
“La Vuelta has changed totally compared to last year. There were so many spectators. I hadn’t seen so many people on the roads. At some stages where there was a seven-kilometre neutralised zone, and in this area, it was packed with people. It was incredible," Garcia recalls.
"When I was racing, I could hear the fans shouting my name at the sides of the road. Although it was on home soil, I didn’t really feel any pressure.”
Garcia lined up at the Spanish Road Championships as the defending time trial and road racing champion, and although she finished second in the time trial to Mireia Benito, she went on to win a historic fifth road race title.
"I am very happy with this achievement. In the time trial, I could push the numbers that I normally can. So that made me a little uncertain about the road race, but luckily this race went much better," she says.
"I tried to make the race as hard as I could. That worked out well in the finale, and I finish solo to take my fifth title. It is great to have this special national champion jersey for another year. It makes me very happy."
She said she felt pressure to perform in the championships events this year, given her streak of success.
"I’ve won the nationals for the last few years, and people will expect me to win. So, if I don’t win, then that won’t look good. Last year, I felt under pressure, too, as the championships took place in my native Mallorca. Luckily, I had the legs to pull it off!" she says.
Defending her crown this year was not just about bragging rights, but it helped in terms of earning her place to race in the Paris Olympics, and it will give her a psychological boost ahead of the Giro d'Italia Donne.
Age and experience matter
Although Garcia is a comparative newbie to top-level racing, she is one of the more senior women in the peloton. The 39-year-old only had her first season of road racing in 2015, albeit after many years of elite competition in other sports.
By her own admission, she had to learn about cycling in record time compared with many other riders who may be 10 years younger than her but who will still have more than twice as many years of experience.
However, on the plus side, it has meant that she tends to deal with high-pressure and adverse situations in a calm, measured and mature manner. Such was the case when she was hit by the car of her then-team during a stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2022.
How did she maintain her sang-froid at such a pivotal time in the race?
“It was very difficult. I had to forget about the significance of it and keep my cool, particularly as in the end I didn’t have any serious injury,” Garcia philosophies.
“It costs you the race when that happens at a time when you are already on the limit during the race. But then again, things could have been a lot worse. I just thought to make the most of what I could do for the rest of the race and try and enjoy it as much as possible," she added.
"I was no longer at 100% fitness, but I was really happy to have been part of the first Tour de France, which I enjoyed. It was a privilege to have been able to participate, be in contention and get a top-10 finish.”
In her new team for this year, Liv Racing Teqfind, Garcia feels really happy to have two-time world champion Giorgia Bronzini as the sports director.
“Giorgia has been a successful racer, and she was racing until recently, so she is aware of the environment in women’s cycling and the challenges, so she understands what we are going through. She knows the races and is able to explain to us clearly how the courses are, as well as the tactical aspects." Garcia says.
"I really like what Giorgia does during and outside of the races. She’s a really fun person and can be jokey, but she also knows when to be serious in the race. With her experience of having been a sports director at Trek-Segafredo as well, she is a real asset to our team.”
She is also complimentary of her teammates. “They give 200% for me, and I am infinitely grateful for what they do.”
The Rafa factor
Who inspires the champion from Mallorca? The answer is two champions, as Garcia explains how Anna van der Breggen and Rafael Nadal have influenced her career.
“When I started, the racer I admired was Anna van der Breggen. I thought she was a classy rider, who seemed to maintain her calm when racing, and she had a really good ability to be in the moment and have focus during the races.”
The other person is also from Mallorca, Nadal, who Garcia watched play tennis matches and learned how to handle the ups and downs of sport and sportsmanship.
“I always used to watch him at tournaments with my friend, and I really liked the way that he dealt with the challenge in his matches, the spectacle of the event. He is an extraordinary athlete who I see as a reference to follow.”
Having completed an altitude training camp at Sierra Nevada and worked toward the next block of races, Garcia is fired up. If she truly emulates the King of Clay, she may be well placed to become Queen of the Road.
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